Thursday, May 4, 2017

Three Glorious Granddaughters

Well, I’m back! After having my computer stolen and struggling with a new blog program that made posting so hard that I was almost ready to quit , Richard gave me a new computer for my birthday and our great Josh set it all up of me and even found a program that I can use offline to prepare the blog and then post when I get back to the Internet. I am so happy!

BUT I’m at least a month behind on posts that I really want to do for the sake of our family history! We have just been on a little trip all the way around the globe with seven stops that were so fun and I’m exited to get that trip documented.

First, however I just have to post about a very fun two and a half days on a Motor Home Trip with three dynamic granddaughters! Because we have so many grandchildren, we love to get kids together in small groups around the time that they turn twelve for a three day trip when we we can just have fun with them!

We started calling it our Motor Home Trip because the first two were really trips in a Motor Home. Yellowstone Park was our first trip with our three oldest grandchildren. Then we went in another, smaller Motor Home with the next three kids to Lagoon, which was only three hours away and a place that Richard and I swore we would never got to again the last time we took our motley crew on a muggy hot summer day with cranky, hungry, quarreling kids. With some trepidation we traveled from Idaho in our Motor Home for a couple of days that turned out to be more fun that we thought was possible!. Everyone loved it!

This year we realized that time was slipping away and we had three girls who were 12,13 and 14 and ready for their big trip! The “Motor Home” turned out to be an airplane ride to a place that was easy for everyone to converge on in a short amount of time. So Eliza came from Salt Lake, Claire came from Phoenix and Hazel came from San Francisco where I had flown from the night before at the conclusion of our Eyrealm Mother’s Retreat. Destination: Las Vegas!!!

Even though there is a lot of nasty stuff going on there, there is also a plethora of good, fun things for kids and I have to say that everyone had a fabulous time, including us old grandparents! Here we are at our very reasonably priced room at the Treasure Island Resort. Do you think everyone looks excited enough, especially Grandfather?

We picked them up one at a time at the airport late at night on Thursday so they could finish their day at school and the next morning we hit the road to see the spectacular Jungle transplanted to the lobby of the Mirage Hotel next door to our hotel. Can you think of three cuter girls?

They took advantage of a photo shoot with everything they saw along the way:

We headed across the street to see the canals of Venice at the Phoenician and they were delighted with the beautiful fake blue sky with clouds overhead as well s the gondola drivers singing their hearts out along the way:

The amazing show called LOVE was playing at this casino and the girls had a pretty great time in this 0 part of LOVE!

The Wynn Hotel was next with it’s amazing flower-bedecked Merry-Go-Round and a lighted hallway perfect for dancing, which they did!

You couldn’t ask for better friends!

Or more spectacular fake sites! Like these chandeliers from the ceiling….

….And these Mosaics on the floor!

They immediately fell in love with even the raucous rest rooms!

From there it was on to an appointment at the Las Vegas Eye, better known as The High Roller! It’s the gigantic roller coaster thing that gives a spectacular view of that enormous collection of “stuff”! We had a private booth with great music which provided a great place for a dance party!

And some time for reflection about the ability of man to believe that he could build anything that he could conceive. Let’s face it, this is not quite like building the pyramids but it’s pretty incredible, even if it is a monument to glitz!

From there we headed to the Bellagio to see the waterfalls dancing to music. We just missed a show so we went inside that incredible lobby to see all the amazing Chihuly glass flowers in the ceiling of the lobby and the always incredible display in the exhibit hall behind. It was a pretty spectacular Japanese exhibit:

Eliza was dying to put out her hat and dance over by the fountains to see if she could make some money! Claire, who has had lots of dance experience thought it was a great idea and Hazel, a pianist at heart opted to watch. Sure enough some hippy guy gave them a silver peace sign which they were delighted about and immediately threw it into the fountain for good luck!

That night we took them to Mystery, one of our very favorite Cirque du Soleill shows ever! We ere all blown away! Richard and I had seen it when it first came out but so much had been added with truly astonishing acts of skill to perfection! The girls were thrilled to the bone!

The next morning went to a tour of The Avengers that Richard had arranged. We all thought it was going to be very different but the girls had fun anyway with a few of their “favorite” Super Heroes.”

We spent some fun time both days at the hotel pool where the girls spent a lot of time creating synchronized swim routines that was pretty amazing. They were almost ready for the Olympics by the end! Wish I knew how to post video! (That’s my next project)!

After working up our appetites at the pool we went to a Las Vegas Buffet, something everyone needs to experience at least once! On the way over to the Mirage, we were cautioned by Eliza not to drink water or soda before we ate or we wouldn’t be able to eat enough to get our money’s worth! Good advice Eliza!

We ended the fun at the Mirage Shark Reef and Zoo which was a perfect ending!

Look at that beautiful White Lion in the background! These animals have a pretty good life for a zoo animal! Beautifully kept grounds made it look like the lap of luxury. And since they haven’t ever known anything else I guess they are pretty much enjoying being fed and royally cared for but don’t quite know how much to appreciate it! :)

Sigfried, who is the one the one who was mauled by a lion in one of their famous shows…and survived…was there signing autographs!

And then it as back to the airport. It think the flight on their own was one of the highlights of the trip actually. As I always say, “Do something every day that scares you!” It was a 2 1/2 day adventure to remember! Not only did we have a load of fun, we all got know each other in a way that only happens in small groups in places that are open to conversation. These girls are going to be so fun to watch as they continue to grow into their teen years and learn how to learn and love in a meaningful way!